Twilight Vendetta Read Online Free Page A

cold. But she’d forgotten all of that while her vampire had held her in his strong arms.
    She lay there, half draped over a padded seat, seething. It occurred to her that she might be in trouble, that they might be DPI posing as innocent fishermen to sweep the area for possible witnesses to the crimes their comrades had just committed. But no, if they’d been intending her harm, the vampire would have known. He wouldn’t have left her in their hands. And a quick inspection of their boat showed an open cooler full of beer cans, a tackle box overflowing with lures and tangled line, and a couple of rods and reels. There were dried bits of once live bait clinging to some of the hooks. They were genuine fishermen, and they’d ruined everything.
She’d been so close!
    Of all the vampires who could’ve come to her aid, it was him.
Her
vampire. The first time she’d seen him, the first time she remembered, at least, came rushing back to her as the meddling do-gooders wrapped her in one of their own jackets and turned their boat toward shore. One of them was asking her questions, but she couldn’t be bothered. She was back there, living it again.
    She’d been seventeen. In hindsight, she knew she’d been at the very beginning of her thrill-seeking lifestyle. She had no fear of death, almost felt she was taunting it, daring it to come and get her. She knew things other teens didn’t know back then. She knew about vampires. She knew about evil government plots to abduct and experiment on them, though she hadn’t yet been aware it was genocide they intended. She knew about the darkness of the human soul in ways no seventeen-year-old should. But she knew other things too. She knew about love at first sight, and that it was real, because her parents had lived it. And no one in the world had loved each other as powerfully and truly as her mom and dad.
    That night she had a freshly-minted driver’s license, and a dangerous boyfriend she was mainly dating because of the adrenaline rush she got while riding beside him in his souped up Mustang during the illegal midnight drag races he loved to take part in. Leo always won. The muscle car boys didn’t race for pink slips or anything, just cash. There was always a few hundred in the pot. For weeks she’d been begging him to let her drive, just once. And finally she’d got him to agree by promising they’d go all the way if she lost.
    She didn’t lose. She won, and her time was faster than Leo’s best. And then just past the finish line, a blowout. The car skidded sideways, then flipped and rolled. She didn’t know it was flipping or rolling, of course. She was aware of it moving fast and out of her control. She was conscious of gripping the wheel so hard her hands hurt, and that there was shattering glass exploding inward, showering her in sharp pebble-sized pieces. Not much else.
    When she opened her eyes, there was rain falling in her face, and everyone had left but Leo. He was pacing upside down–no, wait,
she
was upside down. Leo was talking on his cellphone. Emma seemed to be lying on her back, half in and half out of the car. She could see a tire above her, turning slowly, around and around. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t. She wondered if she was bleeding. Bleeding was very dangerous to her. Leo didn’t even know that. She’d never told him.
    She tried to listen to what he was saying. “Everyone took off, Dad. I don’t know what to do. The car’s trashed.” Then a pause, and then, “I don’t know. I think she’s dead.”
    I’m not dead, you freaking idiot. And how do you not know what to do? Call 911. That’s what you do when there’s an accident.
    She blinked the raindrops out of her eyes and twisted her head to try to see Leo. Maybe he’d look her way, notice her eyes were open, and get her some help. Oh, hell, she could see blood now. There was a dark and still-spreading puddle of it beneath her, and more soaking her blouse.
    She tried to